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Item Open Access Business ethics in the accountancy profession: a South African perspective(University of the Free State, 2013-01) Lubbe, Nandi; Lubbe, D. S.English: For thousands of years, man has been searching for the meaning of life, especially through philosophy and religion. One of the most important aspects in this search is probably the distinction between what constitutes right (good) and wrong (bad). This has not been confined to the personal/philosophical/religious aspects of life, but has also spread to the business sphere and eventually developed into the academic field today known as business ethics. Probably not a single day passes without the media reporting on unethical behaviour in its various forms in South Africa. The recent Lonmin/Marikana strike and its aftermath has dominated the South African media during 2012 and has already largely been described as the most tragic episode in the history of post-apartheid South Africa. The Lonmin incident is a “classic case study” of unethical conduct which included, amongst others, participation in unlawful and unprotected strikes, excessive police brutality, intimidation of and violent action against workers who reported for duty, malicious damage to property, clashes between labour unions fighting for membership and control of the industry, and poor leadership. Of all the corporate collapses that shocked the business world, Enron and its then auditors, Arthur Andersen, was problably the most infamous and significant due to its widespread international spillover effect. Enron and other unethical economic scandals provide an indication of the gravity and extensive reach of business ethics in the world today. The accounting profession plays such an important role in the global economy that the prevelance of unethical business practices often leads to appeals for an investigation into the competence and ethical behaviour of these professionals, accompanied by a notion that the main cause of the wrongdoings may be traced back to inadequate prominence given to ethics education within the profession. One of the main challenges in presenting business ethics courses is to keep the subject pragmatic and practically applicable – which may be difficult, possibly due to the discipline’s development from philosophy. If the pragmatic and practical focus is not maintained, business ethics may result in a mere philosophical and theoretical course that has little to do with ethical challenges encountered in the real business world. This study consists of a literature compopnent and an empirical component. The fourfold aim of the literature study was to provide 1) an overview of the development of business ethics as a discipline; 2) the viewpoints and requirements of professional accountancy bodies regarding business ethics and business ethics education; 3) an overview of business ethics modules presented by certain South African universities; and 4) the broad theoretical background to the discipline. The empirical research component was conducted by means of a questionnaire. The aim was primarily to determine the insight of four groups of students in business ethics at the beginning of the course as compared to that at the end of the course to establish the possible impact of the course on the ethical reasoning abilitites and perceptions of students. The questionnaire was also developed to also take into account the major requirements of SAICA regarding business ethics courses. The opinions and perceptions of the four groups of students enabled the researcher to reach conclusions and make recommendations regarding the suitability of the current content of business ethics courses. The study is set out in 5 chapters. Chapter 1 provides the introduction to the study, sketching a few of the ethical dilemmas that the world is currently faced with as a means to illustrate the importance of business ethics as a discipline. This is followed by an overview and discussion of the viewpoints and requirements of professional accountancy bodies regarding business ethics and business ethics education as well as an overview of business ethics modules presented by certain South African universities. Chapter 3 provides an overview of the development of business ethics as a discipline followed by an analysis of the findings gathered from the questionnaire (chapter 4). The final chapter consists of the conclusions and recommendations for improvement of business ethics courses and further research possibilities.